Two-day long crisis which started after Pristina decided to take over border posts Jarinje and Brnjak on the administrative line between Kosovo and central Serbia, has escalated Wednesday evening as the group of armed Serbs set the checkpoint Jarinje on fire. "The situation deteriorated at the customs post Jarinje and it was confirmed that an act of arson was committed against that position... There have also been confirmed reports of shots fired at KFOR personnel in the vicinity," NATO peacekeeping mission in Kosovo (KFOR) stated. According to reports from the spot, several hundred people were at the checkpoint Jarinje in the time of attack. The group of young men, who came from the direction of Kosovska Mitrovica, asked people to step away and then started to demolish and burn the facilities. No injured were reported. Kosovo police began their operation to take over the two checkpoints on the administrative line earlier this week but local Serbs resisted, took up arms and mounted roadblocks. The incident was "expected, because Serbs are not a nation that will allow anyone to humiliate and degrade them", state secretary of Serbia’s Kosovo Ministry told Beta news agency. The latest move of Kosovo Albanian authorities led by Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, alleged boss of a mafia group involved in drug and organs smuggling, is just another sign of Pristina’s determination to extent its government rule to the ethnic-Serb dominated northern part of Kosovo. The raid by Kosovo special police came shortly after Pristina banned all Serb products and Serbia refused to accept Kosovo's customs stamps, needed for cross-border trade. Serbia refuses to recognize the Kosovo self-proclaimed independence, and maintains close ties with the region north of Kosovska Mitrovica, where the majority of Kosovo Serbs live. For more details click here >>>
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